
Plutarch's Cities is the first comprehensive attempt to assess the significance of the polis in Plutarch's works from several perspectives, namely the polis as a physical entity, a lived experience, and a source of inspiration, the polis as a historical and sociopolitical unit, the polis as a theoretical construct and paradigm to think with. The book's multifocal and multi-perspectival examination of Plutarch's cities - past and present, real and ideal-yields some remarkable corrections of his conventional image. Plutarch was neither an antiquarian nor a philosopher of the desk. He was not oblivious to his surroundings but had a keen interest in painting, sculpture, monuments, and inscriptions, about which he acquired impressive knowledge in order to help him understand and reconstruct the past. Cult and ritual proved equally fertile for Plutarch's visual imagination. Whereas historiography was the backbone of his reconstruction of the past and evaluation of the present, material culture, cult, and ritual were also sources of inspiration to enliven past and present alike. Plato's descriptions of Athenian houses and the Attic landscape were also a source of inspiration, but Plutarch clearly did his own research, based on autopsy and on oral and written sources. Plutarch, Plato's disciple and Apollo's priest, was on balance a pragmatist. He did not resist the temptation to contemplate the ideal city, but he wrote much more about real cities, as he experienced or imagined them.
This work investigates the significance of the polis within the writings of Plutarch, challenging the perception of him as a detached intellectual. Alfred L. Chan utilizes a multi-perspectival approach to analyze how Plutarch engaged with the city as a physical, historical, and theoretical entity. By examining Plutarch's interest in material culture, cult, and ritual, the author argues that Plutarch was a pragmatist who actively engaged with the realities of urban life rather than merely contemplating abstract ideals.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars recognize this text as a specialized contribution to Plutarchan studies that effectively bridges the gap between his philosophical output and his historical observations. The book is noted for its rigorous focus on the intersection of material culture and literary analysis.
Page Count:
360
Publication Date:
2022-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0192676172
ISBN-13:
9780192676177
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